Range-Bound Markets End Higher By 0.25%

The Indian markets closed positive today after having traded in a range-bound manner. The markets saw some gains in the morning, which were wiped out mid-session and regained to a certain extent by the end of the day. With this, the Sensex closed higher by 48.04 points at 18871.95, up by 0.26% and the Nifty ended the day higher by 14.50 points at 5733.30, up by 0.25%.

On the Asian front, the Chinese markets are closed this week for a holiday. The Hang Seng rose by 0.23% and Nikkei 225 closed lower by 0.44%. Chinese officials said today that the country’s non-manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 53.7 for September 2012 from 56.3 in August. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, and this data clearly shows a slowdown in growth. Economic growth for China too has slowed to a three-year low at 7.6% for April to June. With increasing concerns over China’s momentum of growth, Asian Development Bank cut China’s growth forecast to 7.7 per cent from 8.2%.

The overall investment mood has been mild worldwide because of the holiday in China and the wait towards Spain formally requesting bailout funds so that the ECB can start off with the peripheral bond purchase programme. The European markets opened flat to negative today, and have been following a rather dismal trend. The FTSE and DAX are currently trading higher by 0.06% and 0.22% respectively, while CAC is trading lower by 0.04%. Trading is expected to remain lacklustre on concerns over Spain filing for help and Chinese data indicating no improvement.

On the domestic front, there was significant strength seen in midcaps and smallcaps, with the indices gaining 0.6% and 0.86% respectively. Among the sectors, Oil & Gas, PSU and Healthcare were the top gainers, rising in the range of 0.55%-0.99%.

The rupee today reached a 5-month high, pushing the IT stocks severely lower. With this in play, the export dependent industry saw a decline of 0.34%. The Teck index too fell by 0.29% today. Among other losing sectors were Consumer Durables and Auto.

The shares of the two largest players Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp saw a downward move to the extent of 1.56% and 1.66% respectively. This was on account of lower sales volumes for the month of Sept 2012, down by 13.77% and 26.35% respectively.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki gained 0.54% on receiving a good response for its to-be-launched small car, Alto 800. It also hiked car prices, like some other players recently have.

The shares of Sun Pharma saw strong buying today and gained 0.72% after receiving a nod from the US FDA for its abbreviated new drug application.

Kingfisher Airlines slumped 4.89% with the DGCA saying that a call on resuming services will take place only on a credible salary plan to clear outstanding dues. The company declared a partial lockdown till Thursday, Oct 4. Among other losers were Jindal Steel and Power Grid, which were down 4.88% and 2.00% respectively.

With a not-so-encouraging global environment and a stable domestic environment, we expect tomorrow’s trading to be mild and dull.